The Club's Results
May Term 2024
2nd women's VIII
Head of the Cam (2nd division)
3rd (/4)
Time: 11:46
Time: 11:46
Computing Officer's Note: The 2nd division and the lower divisions were merged due to lack of entries.
First race back, and I was in my least-favourite seat of 7.
Anne set a phenomenal rhythm, so I just focussed on putting power down and following her.
We overtook Darwin on the reach, which was an interesting moment for me given that I coach that crew!
Definitely cost us some time, so we might have been close to Jesus without that, but who knows.
A good race all round, and if I'd remembered to submit this report slightly sooner I might have more details!
Cambridge Head-2-Head (Mays 4th)
2nd in Div (Officially 3rd due to category error)
Time: 16:46
Time: 16:46
Head to head, twice the fun.
Easter term, here comes the sun.
Marshalling, take the run.
The race starts, now await the gun.
Down the first half in 7:45,
At rate 33 all on the leg drive.
We spun at the lock, waited for other crews to arrive.
Had some sugar, needing to revive.
9 flat was not quite the vision,
Nevertheless we came third in the division.
Perhaps with the blades there could have been more precision.
Anyway, back to revision…
Head to Head, a 2*2k race which was an intimidating prospect for me in my first race at Stroke (in about 6 years)
Our race plan was to wind to 35, and then settle to 28-30, but we ended up settling to more like 32 and stayed there all race.
We had a plan for our start sequence, but it didn't really work and was just a bit of a scrappy chaotic mess.
Bao and I had agreed that if I needed to focus on putting down good rhythm rather than raw power (aka because I'd blown up) he'd called "Frontload", a call which means something to me if no-one else.
He called this <500m into race 1, which did good things for our boatspeed and our rowing and says bad things about my fitness.
We powered down the course at a solid 32, and tried to take it up into the finish but I didn't manage to lift the rate.
First leg was 7:45.9, the quickest 2k on the water I can remember.
We spun at the lock, and while marshalling Emily showed me the stopwatch for the Darwin crew I coach. 7:52.3 was an amazing result and my jaw hit the floor, because I was hoping they'd do 8:15 in my wildest dreams!
With my confidence in my coaching ability if not my rowing back up, we set of for the second leg.
We once again had a bit of a mess of a rolling start, but got the boat moving quickly at 35 and then settled down to 32 for the duration.
I made it a whole 750m into the race this time before Bao screamed "Frontload" at me, so we'll call that progress!
I was watching Churchill W2 chase us and had a horrible feeling they were gaining by a small amount, but we gave it everything and powered to the line.
Unfortunately I'd paced it badly and had utterly blown up before the line, and the rate ended up coming down rather than up in the final 250m which didn't help much.
I heard the horn go on the finish and the only thought in my head was "thank god". My grip subconsciously relaxed a bit, but unfortunately my legs didn't get the memo and gave one last full power stroke. The result - I shot backwards towards the finish and my blade didn't come with me.
I landed in Qingyue's footwell somewhat stunned, and then watched in horror as my blade caught on the water, pirouetted in what felt like slow motion and the handle shot round and hit Qingyue. Fortunately she was OK, but I felt awful.
Final time: 16:46.2, 5.7s slower than Churchill over 4k which isn't too bad.
We ended up second, although the official results show us as third because Homerton W2 were in the wrong category.
A good race, but with some lessons to learn for next week.
Radegund Mile Head Race (College VIIIs)
1st in Lower VIIIs
Time: 8:24
Time: 8:24
To get me to sub, all you have to do is ask.
Especially when I get to walk away with a hip flask.
Going into the race, spirits were high, and our row down to the start was powerful.
Marshalling was slightly tricky as we were double-stacked, with Clare trying to sit outboard of us and Kings.
We knew the results of the previous division while we were marshalling, so we knew that anything under 8:38 was likely to be a winning time.
On that basis, plus a £1.99 GPS app on Bao's phone we knew that as long as we kept the split below 2:09 we should be good, so Bao said he'd yell loudly if we went above that.
We paddled down to the start, and our rolling-start-gremlins reared their ugly heads once more, but we made it across the line at 90%+ of max boat speed, and probably only lost a second or so.
Down 1st post reach we were on a 1:53 split, and so I focussed on setting a powerful rhythm and letting the boat row efficiently.
We settled onto 2:04 at a sustainable r32, knowing that we were doing well.
Our split dropped off around the corners, with 2:18 being called on the exit of Ditton, but a huge push as the rudder came off brought the split back.
I avoided the mistakes of Head-to-head and took the rate up to 35 for the last 300m
Just as I could feel myself on the point of completely blowing, I heard Csongi (our wonderful bank party) call for the last 5 strokes so gave it everything and we crossed the line with a time of 8:24.86
We knew already that it had been a quick race, and the results were live updating so we were all asking Csongi questions about other crew's times as we paddled home.
We got back to the boathouse, and took our crew photos, one with the wonderful Amanda and one with the traditional crossed blades.
Finally, prizegiving was at the Haymakers Pub so some of us went over there to pick up our hipflasks, and have a celebratory pizza and drink.
Well done to everyone, and a huge thanks to Csongi and Chiara for bank partying, and to Zara and Lily for subbing in for the day and providing a lot of watts between them!
My first win in the stroke seat, and I couldn't be prouder of the crew I had with me!
💛💙💛
Champion of the Thames Eights Head (Womens's 4th Div. Mays)
May Bumps
Up 4 - Bumped King's II, Fitzwilliam II, Emmanuel IV and Darwin IIWednesday
Bumped King's II
Bumped King's II
My first bumps race at stroke, and it turns out that being able to see the boat behind makes a huge difference.
We pushed Catz back out of whistle range and set off in hot pursuit of Kings, rapidly gaining a whistle of our own.
There were a group of cygnets sleeping in the marshalling area.
On the plus side, they were adorable. On the down side, this meant that we had 3 boats worth of space to marshal 5 boats. This went predictably chaotically, with Fitz embedding their bow under my rigger. While extracting themselves, they also borrowed some paint off my blade, leaving a blue smear all over their bow.
Our push-out didn't go perfectly - we hit the end of the chain with 6 seconds to go and were moving backwards by the time the gun went.
That, combined with the fact that we weren't sat meant that (I think) all of bowside caught minicrabs and couldn't extract on the opening stroke and Catz took half a length out of us before we even moved.
My heart was in my mouth as I got the catch in for stroke 2, but I felt the boat accelerate under me as the power went down cleanly and I knew in that moment that we were away and safe.
Having said before the race in no uncertain terms that we were going to keep the start to max 37 to avoid the risk of an adrenaline fuelled crab, I then threw that out the window and took it up to 40+ off the start, before rhythming down to a more sedate 37.
We pushed Catz back out of whistle range and set off in hot pursuit of Kings, rapidly gaining a whistle of our own.
We bumped them shortly after the A14 bridge, in a total of 1 minute 23.5 seconds, and 48 strokes. Of those, 47 were excellent.
We actually got the bump on Kings somewhere just shy of a minute, but they didn't concede and so having made contact with their stern twice the bump was awarded by the umpire and we cleared safely to the towpath.
All in all, an excellent first day of bumps, and we proved that we can pull together and work as a crew even when things go wrong.
Onwards and upwards!
Thursday
Bumped Fitzwilliam II
Bumped Fitzwilliam II
A somewhat smoother start to the day than yesterday, we managed to avoid Fitz at the marshalling area this time.
Our row down and our practice starts were a tad scrappy. They weren't terrible, just nowhere near the standard we hold ourselves to.
The start also went much more smoothly, we came powerfully out of the blocks with Kings behind us nowhere in sight.
Within a few strokes I heard a whistle and had a brief burst of optimism, before realising that I couldn't hear any of our bank party shouting anything whistle related.
I then realised that the whistle wasn't for us on Fitz, but for Fitz on Emma which was altogether more of an issue.
We finally got a whistle on Fitz after 30 seconds or so, but by that point they had 2 and then 3 whistles on Emma.
As we came to the end of First Post Reach, my Darwin crew that I coach were screaming full volume at us, with Leah R somehow managing to be heard clearly above all of the total chaos.
At the point we passed Darwin, we were a length off from Fitz, and Fitz were within a canvas of Emma.
They quickly closed that to overlap, with us still a length behind.
At this point, Bomber yelled "Move" in a voice which left very little room for interpretation, nuance or disagreement; providing a clear indication that unless we had a burning desire to chase LMBC all the way to top finish for an overbump attempt we should hurry up and gain some ground on Fitz.
The boat took off for an all-or-nothing sprint, and Fitz saw that and did the same thing.
In their haste to bump before we got there, they lunged for Emma's stern around First Post corner and missed.
Having overcommitted, they then ran wide and we reeled them in and bumped them on the exit of the corner.
I believe Fitz and Emma were between a canvas and overlap for a full minute, thus making this one of the most spectacular and nailbiting races I've ever been a part of.
I didn't actually know how close it was at the time - I was busy just trying to set a rhythm that the crew could follow while dealing with the fact that every piece of technique I'd ever learned had decided to go out the window, leaving me rowing with all the power and poise of a week 2 novice.
From a personal standpoint, probably the worst race I've ever rowed (it's a close call with the M3 Talbott Cup I subbed into 3 hours post bike-crash), and yet somehow we pulled a rabbit out of the hat and got the bump by the skin of our teeth.
3 minutes 14.7 seconds (so close to Pi!!) and 112 strokes. On my side at least, at least 110 of them were crap.
It was a lot of luck, along with a lot of hard work training that got us there. Hopefully it's not that close a call tomorrow and I can row more than 2 good strokes!
Friday
Bumped Emmanuel IV
Bumped Emmanuel IV
A much smoother day today.
There was a massive rainstorm during the row up from marshalling to our station, so we did our practice start in driving rain before rowing the actual race in dry conditions.
Stroke coach decided to die on me just as we started, so no stats for today, but it was somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes total, from just before the bridge to just before first post.
3 days done, 1 to go.
The only problem is that we're chasing the Darwin crew I coach tomorrow. It's going to be an emotional day no matter what happens
Saturday
Bumped Darwin II
Bumped Darwin II
BLADES!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately at the expense of my Darwin Crew.
Unfortunately at the expense of my Darwin Crew.
Super proud of everyone in both boats <3 <3
Links
Full 2nd women's VIII results archive
